Method and apparatus for controlling offers that are provided at a point-of-sale terminal

ABSTRACT

A POS terminal or other computing device provides a plurality of offers to customers, and then measures a performance rate of each offer. For example, the acceptance rate or the profit rate of the offers may be measured. Based on the performance rates, a subset of offers is selected. In one embodiment, the highest performing offers are selected. In another embodiment, those offers having performance rates above a predetermined threshold are selected. The selected subset of offers is then provided, while the remaining, less desirable offers are discontinued.

[0001] PROCESSING A SUPPLEMENTARY PRODUCT SALE AT A POINT-OF-SALETERMINAL (Attorney Docket No. WD2-97-559), each assigned to the assigneeof the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates to point-of-sale terminals, and,more specifically, to methods and apparatus for controlling offers thatare provided at point-of-sale terminals.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Point-of-sale (“POS”) terminals, such as cash registers, are usedin a wide variety of businesses for performing such processes ascalculating the total price of a purchase (goods or services) andcalculating the amount of change due to a customer. In addition, POSterminals may also be used with an offering system in order to provideoffers to customers. Such offering systems may be intended to increasesales, and thereby increase the average profit gained per transaction.

[0004] One type of offering system is described in the parentapplication of the present application, patent application Ser. No.08/920,116, entitled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING SUPPLEMENTARYPRODUCT SALES AT A POINT-OF-SALE TERMINAL, filed on Aug. 26, 1997. Asdescribed therein, a customer at a POS terminal is offered an “upsell”in exchange for an amount of change he is due. The POS terminaldetermines an upsell in dependence on a purchase of the customer, andalso determines an upsell price (the amount of change due) based on thepurchase. For example, a customer purchasing a first product for $1.74and tendering $2.00 may be offered a second product in lieu of the $0.26change due. The upsell price, $0.26, thus depends on the purchase price$1.74. Another type of offering system is a computer-determined“suggestive sell”. U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,219 describes a system forsuggesting items for a customer to purchase at conventional item prices.

[0005] In an offering system, there are many possible offers which maybe provided to customers. For example, in the above-described upselloffer, many different upsells may be offered to a customer in exchangefor the particular amount of change due. An offer to a customer at afast-food restaurant may include a soda, large French fries, or adessert. Precisely which upsell to offer may be chosen according to apredetermined program at random, or manually by a manager or otheroperator.

[0006] Unfortunately, random or manual selection of an offer does notnecessarily assure that the “best” (highest performing) offers will beprovided to customers. What constitutes the “best” offer may beevaluated with respect to one or more criteria, yielding corresponding“performance rates” for the various offers. For example, the acceptancerate of an offer is a performance rate that may be used to evaluate theoffer, since some offers may be less likely to be accepted by customersthan other offers. In addition, the profit derived from an acceptedoffer is another performance rate that may be used to evaluate theoffer.

[0007] It may be difficult or impossible for a manager or other operatorto identify the “best” offers (the offers with the highest performancerates). A manager is unlikely to have knowledge of the true performancerates of a group of offers. A manager is also unlikely to have the timeto analyze historical trends to identify the best offers. In addition,at different times of the day or days of the week, certain offers may bemore attractive to customers than others. Unanticipated events, such asa high state lottery jackpot or a good article in a magazine, may alsomake certain offers more attractive. Such circumstances impede attemptsby a manager to identify the best offers. Accordingly, a need exists forcontrolling offers that are provided at a point-of-sale terminal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] It is an object of the present invention to control offers thatare provided at a point-of-sale terminal.

[0009] In accordance with the present invention, a POS terminal or othercomputing device provides a plurality of offers to customers, and thenmeasures a performance rate of each offer. For example, the acceptancerate or the profit rate of the offers may be measured. Based on theperformance rates, a subset of offers is selected. In one embodiment,the highest performing offers are selected. In another embodiment, thoseoffers having performance rates above a predetermined threshold areselected. The selected subset of offers is then provided, while theremaining, less desirable offers are discontinued.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010]FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a POS terminal provided inaccordance with the present invention.

[0011]FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of another embodiment of thePOS terminal of FIG. 1.

[0012]FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of a network of POS terminals.

[0013]FIG. 4 is a table illustrating an embodiment of a database ofoffers.

[0014]FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a record of a transactiondatabase.

[0015]FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method for controllingoffers that are provided at one or more POS terminals.

[0016]FIG. 7 is a table illustrating an embodiment of a performance ratedatabase.

[0017]FIG. 8 is a table illustrating another embodiment of a performancerate database.

[0018]FIG. 9 is a schematic illustration of databases employed indetermining offers which continue to be provided.

[0019]FIG. 10 is a schematic illustration of another embodiment ofdatabases employed in determining offers which continue to be provided.

[0020]FIG. 11 is a table illustrating another embodiment of a databaseof offers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0021] One or more POS terminals control offers that are provided tocustomers, such that those offers which have high performance rates areprovided. The present invention determines the best offers by providingcustomers with a group of offers, and evaluating the performance ratesof the offers. By contrast, random or manual (human) selection of offersis unlikely to determine the best offers. Furthermore, the presentinvention advantageously relieves managers or other personnel of thetask of selecting offers.

[0022] By continually evaluating the performance rates of offers, theoffers provided to customers continue to be the highest performing. Ifthe performance rate of a once-attractive offer decreases, it can bereplaced by other, higher-performing offers.

[0023] The present invention may further make the offer appear to thecustomer to be random, since a POS terminal typically provides differentoffers at different times. This, in turn, can make it difficult forcustomers to manipulate the offer system to their advantage.

[0024] Referring to FIG. 1, a POS terminal 10, which may be the IBM 4683or IBM 4693 manufactured by International Business Machines, comprises aprocessor 12, such as one or more conventional microprocessors. Theprocessor 12 is in communication with a data storage device 14, such asan appropriate combination of magnetic, optical and/or semiconductormemory. The processor 12 and the storage device 14 may each be (i)located entirely within a single computer or other computing device;(ii) connected to each other by a remote communication medium, such as aserial port cable, telephone line or radio frequency transceiver; or(iii) a combination thereof. For example, the POS terminal 10 maycomprise one or more computers which are connected to a remote servercomputer for maintaining databases.

[0025] An input device 16 preferably comprises a keypad for transmittinginput signals, such as signals indicative of a purchase, to theprocessor 12. A printer 18 is for registering indicia on paper or othermaterial, thereby printing receipts, coupons and vouchers as commandedby the processor 12. A display device 20 is preferably a video monitorfor displaying at least alphanumeric characters to the customer and/orcashier. Many types of input devices, printers and display devices areknown to those skilled in the art, and need not be described in detailherein. The input device 16, printer 18 and display device 20 are eachin communication with the processor 12.

[0026] The storage device 14 stores a program 22 for controlling theprocessor 12. The processor 12 performs instructions of the program 22,and thereby operates in accordance with the present invention, andparticularly in accordance with the methods described in detail herein.The program 22 furthermore includes program elements that may benecessary, such as an operating system and “device drivers” for allowingthe processor 12 to interface with computer peripheral devices, such asthe input device 16, the printer 18 and the display device 20.Appropriate device drivers and other necessary program elements areknown to those skilled in the art, and need not be described in detailherein.

[0027] The storage device 14 also stores (i) a database of offers 24;(ii) a transaction database 26; and (iii) a performance rate database28. The databases 24, 26 and 28 are described in detail below anddepicted with exemplary entries in the accompanying figures. As will beunderstood by those skilled in the art, the schematic illustrations andaccompanying descriptions of the databases presented herein areexemplary arrangements for stored representations of information. Anumber of other arrangements may be employed besides the tables shown.Similarly, the illustrated entries represent exemplary information, butthose skilled in the art will understand that the number and content ofthe entries can be different from those illustrated herein.

[0028]FIG. 2 illustrates another embodiment of the POS terminal 10, inwhich a control device 28 is in communication via a communication medium30 with a system 32 for providing an offer. The control device 28comprises a processor 34 in communication with the input device 16 andthe display device 20. The system 32 for providing an offer comprises aprocessor 36 in communication with the storage device 14 and the printer18. In this embodiment, the control device 28 may be a cash register,and the system 32 may be an electronic device for printing coupons inaccordance with data received from the cash register. Otherconfigurations of the POS terminal 10 will be understood by thoseskilled in the art.

[0029] Referring to FIG. 3, a network 40 includes a server 42 incommunication with POS terminals 44, 46 and 48. The server 42 directsthe operation of, stores data from, and transmits data to the POSterminals 44, 46 and 48. The server 42 may itself be a POS terminal, asdescribed above, or may be another computing device which cancommunicate with one or more POS terminals. Although three POS terminalsare shown in FIG. 3, any number of POS terminals may be in communicationwith the server 42 without departing from the spirit and scope of thepresent invention. Each of the POS terminals 44, 46 and 48 may belocated in the same store, in different stores of a chain of stores, orin other locations. The server 42 may perform many of the processesdescribed below, especially those processes that are performed for morethan one POS terminal. The server 42 may furthermore store data such asthe database of offers 24.

[0030] Referring to FIG. 4, a table 60 illustrates an embodiment of thedatabase of offers 24 (FIG. 1). The table 60 includes entries 62, 64, 66and 68, each of which describes an offer to be provided to customers. Itwill be understood by those skilled in the art that the table 60 mayinclude any number of entries. Each of the entries 62, 64, 66 and 68specifies (i) an offer identifier 70 for uniquely indicating the offer;(ii) an offer description 72 for describing the offer; (iii) a cost ofthe offer 74 to the offeror; and (iv) an offer frequency 76. The offerfrequency 76 indicates the average percentage of times that thecorresponding offer is to be provided when an offer is provided. Forexample, each of the entries 62, 64, 66 and 68 includes an offerfrequency of 25%, and thus each of the entries 62, 64, 66 and 68 will beprovided to customers approximately one out of every four times an offeris provided, on average.

[0031] Referring to FIG. 5, a record 90 of the transaction database 26(FIG. 1) defines the transactions performed at a POS terminal identifiedby a POS terminal identifier 92. The transaction database 26 (FIG. 1)typically includes a plurality of records such as the record 90, eachdefining the transactions performed at a different POS terminal. Therecord 90 includes entries 94, 96 and 98 which each describe atransaction. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that therecord 90 may include any number of entries. Each of the entries 94, 96and 98 specifies (i) a transaction identifier 100 that uniquelyindicates a transaction; (ii) a date 102 of the transaction; (iii) atime 104 of the transaction; (iv) a purchase description 106 thatdescribes details of the transaction, such as the items purchased, thepurchase price and/or the identity of the customer; (v) an offeridentifier 108 that indicates an offer that was provided during thetransaction; (vi) an indication of whether the offer was accepted 110;and (vii) a revenue 112 that is derived due to the customer acceptingthe offer.

[0032] Referring to FIG. 6, a flow chart 120 illustrates a method forcontrolling offers that are provided at one or more POS terminals.Offers are provided to customers (step 122) in accordance to thedatabase of offers 24 (FIG. 1). As described above with reference to thetable 60 (FIG. 4), each offer includes an offer frequency that indicatesthe average percentage of times that the corresponding offer is to beprovided. Thus, the database of offers 24 indicates which offers are tobe provided to customers, and also indicates the frequency with whichthe offers are to be provided.

[0033] For example, the POS terminal 10 (FIG. 1) (or the server 42 ofFIG. 3, in a networked embodiment) may generate a random number between0 and 1 each time an offer is to be provided. Then, an offer would beselected in accordance with the random number and with the offerfrequency illustrated in FIG. 4. A random number between 0.00 and 0.25would correspond to the offer “A”, while a random number between 0.26and 0.50 would correspond to the offer “B”, and so on for offers “C” and“D”.

[0034] Alternatively, the POS terminal 10 or server 42 can provide afirst offer during a first series of transactions, and then providesubsequent offers during consecutive series of transactions. The sizesof the series of transactions (the number of transactions in the series)would be selected in accordance with the offer frequencies 76 of thetable 60 (FIG. 4). For example, each of the offers specified by thetable 60 of FIG. 4 has an equal offer frequency (25%). Thus, the firstoffer “A” defined by the entry 62 could be provided to customers duringa first series of ten transactions, and the remaining three offersdefined by the entries 64, 66 and 68 could be provided during subsequentseries of ten transactions each. Since there are four offers and eachoffer is provided to customers during ten out of forty transactions,each offer has a frequency of 25%.

[0035] In another embodiment, each of a plurality of POS terminals mayprovide a different offer to customers. For example, a first POSterminal could provide a first offer during a series of one hundredtransactions, and a second POS terminal could provide a second offerduring a series of one hundred transactions. Accordingly, both the firstoffer and the second offer would have a frequency of 50%(100/(100+100)=0.50=50%).

[0036] Once offers are provided to customers at step 122, the POSterminal 10 or server 42 calculates the performance rate of each offer(step 124). The performance rate may be any measured and/or calculatedquantity, such as an Acceptance Rate or a Profit Rate. Many otherperformance rates will be understood by those skilled in the art. Theperformance rate of each offer may be calculated at predeterminedperiods, such as at the end of each day, or after predetermined numbersof offers have been provided to customers.

[0037] An Acceptance Rate may be calculated in accordance with thefollowing:

Acceptance Rate=Number of Times Accepted/Number of Times Provided

[0038] The Number of Times Provided is the number of times a particularoffer was provided to customers. Similarly, the Number of Times Acceptedis the number of times that the provided offer was accepted bycustomers. Both the Number of Times Provided and the Number of TimesAccepted may be determined from data stored in the transaction database26 (FIG. 1). It is typically desirable to have a high Acceptance Rate,and ideally an offer will have an Acceptance Rate of 100%. However, itis likely that the Acceptance Rate of an offer will be less than 100%.

[0039] Referring to FIG. 7, a table 140 illustrates an embodiment of theperformance rate database 28 (FIG. 1). In this embodiment, theperformance rate database 28 is configured to store Acceptance Rate dataas described above. The table 140 includes entries 142, 144, 146 and148, each of which describes an offer that has been provided tocustomers. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that thetable 140 may include any number of entries. Each of the entries 142,144, 146 and 148 specifies (i) an offer identifier 150 for uniquelyindicating the offer; (ii) a number of times accepted 152; (iii) anumber of times provided 154; and (iv) an acceptance rate 156 of theoffer. The table 140 may thus be used in determining which offers havethe highest performance rate.

[0040] A Profit Rate is a performance rate of an offer that may becalculated in accordance with the following:

Profit Rate=(Revenue−Cost)/Number of Times Provided

[0041] The Revenue is the amount of all income derived due to customersaccepting the offer. The Cost is the expense incurred from customersaccepting the offer. The Number of Times Provided is the number of timesa particular offer was provided to customers.

[0042] Referring to FIG. 8, a table 170 illustrates another embodimentof the performance rate database 28 (FIG. 1). In this embodiment, theperformance rate database 28 is configured to store average profit peroffer. The table 170 includes entries 172, 174, 176 and 178, each ofwhich describes an offer that has been provided to customers. It will beunderstood by those skilled in the art that the table 170 may includeany number of entries. Each of the entries 172, 174, 176 and 178specifies (i) an offer identifier 180 for uniquely indicating the offer;(ii) a number of times accepted 182; (iii) a number of times provided184; (iv) an average revenue derived per accepted offer 186; (v) anaverage profit derived per accepted offer 188; and (vi) an averageprofit derived per offer 190.

[0043] Those skilled in the art will understand that the number of timesaccepted 182, the number of times provided 184 and the average revenue186 may be determined from data stored in the transaction database 26(FIG. 1). For example, referring again to the record 90 of FIG. 5, atthe POS terminal #7 the offers “A”, “B” and “C” have each been offeredonce, as seen from the offer identifier 108. The offers “B” and “C” haveeach been accepted once, as indicated by the offer accepted 110 field.Similarly, the revenue derived for the offers “A”, “B” and “C” is $0.00,$0.50 and $0.78 respectively. An average revenue for each offer would bederived by dividing the total revenue from each offer by the number oftimes it was offered.

[0044] The average profit per accepted offer 188 may be determined bysubtracting the cost per offer (the cost 74 of FIG. 4) from the averagerevenue 186. Finally, the average profit per offer 190, which is theprofit rate defined above, may be determined by multiplying the averageprofit per accepted offer 188 by the acceptance rate of the offer. Asdescribed above, the acceptance rate of the offer is determined bydividing the number of times accepted 182 by the number of timesprovided 184.

[0045] Referring again to FIG. 6, after the performance rates of theoffers have been calculated (step 124), the POS terminal 10 or server 42determines modifications to the database of offers 24 based on theperformance rates (step 126). Each offer may be provided at a differentoffer frequency, or even discontinued, in accordance with the calculatedperformance rate of that offer. As described below, offers with higherperformance rates continue to be provided to customers, and aretypically provided at higher offer frequencies. Similarly, offers withlow performance rates are typically provided at lower offer frequencies,or may even cease to be provided altogether.

[0046] In one embodiment, only offers having performance rates greaterthan a predetermined threshold continue to be provided to customers. Ifone or more offers cease to be provided, each offer frequency must bechanged, as described below.

[0047]FIG. 9 illustrates the selection of offers to discontinue. A table200 depicts data stored in an embodiment of the performance ratedatabase 28 (FIG. 1). For each offer, there is an offer identifier 202and an acceptance rate 204. A threshold 206 of 10% defines which of theoffers in the table 200 will continue to be provided. In particular, theoffers defined by entries 208 and 210 (the offers “A” and “B”) haveacceptance rates greater than 10%, and thus will continue to beprovided. By contrast, the offers defined by entries 212 and 214 (theoffers “C” and “D”) have acceptance rates less than 10%, and thus willbe discontinued.

[0048] A table 216 depicts data stored in an embodiment of the databaseof offers 24 (FIG. 1). As described above with respect to FIG. 4, eachoffer has an offer identifier 218 and an offer frequency 220. Since theoffers “C” and “D” have been discontinued, the corresponding offerfrequencies of those offers are 0%. The offer frequencies of the offers“A” and “B”, which continue to be offered, change accordingly. The offerfrequencies may be changed so that they are equal to each other (50%each). Alternatively, the offer frequencies may be changed in accordancewith their relation to one another, as follows:

F _(new) =F _(old) /F _(total)

[0049] Where:

[0050] F_(new) is the new offer frequency

[0051] F_(old) is the offer frequency prior to being changed

[0052] F_(total) is the sum of the values of F_(old) for the offers thatare not discontinued

[0053] In FIG. 9, the offer frequency “58%” of the offer “A” iscalculated by from the offer frequencies of the offers that are notdiscontinued:

58%=20.4%/(20.4%+14.8%)

[0054] The offer frequency “42%” of the offer “B” is similarlycalculated:

42%=14.8%/(20.4%+14.8%)

[0055] Those skilled in the art will understand that there are othermethods for changing the offer frequencies of offers.

[0056] In another embodiment, a predetermined number of thehighest-performing offers continue to be provided to customers. Theremaining offers, if any, are not provided. FIG. 10 illustrates theselection of offers to discontinue in this embodiment. A table 240depicts data stored in another embodiment of the performance ratedatabase 28 (FIG. 1). For each offer, there is an offer identifier 242and an average profit per order 244. A threshold 246 of “three” definesthe number of highest-performing offers in the table 240 which willcontinue to be provided. In particular, the offers defined by entries248, 250 and 252 (the offers “A”, “B” and “C”) are the top three offerswith respect to average profit per order, and thus will continue to beprovided. By contrast, the offer defined by entry 254 (the offer “D”)will be discontinued.

[0057] A table 256 depicts data stored in an embodiment of the databaseof offers 24 (FIG. 1). As described above, each offer has an offeridentifier 258 and an offer frequency 260. Since the offer “D” has beendiscontinued, the corresponding offer frequency is 0%. The offerfrequencies of the offers “A”, “B” and “C”, which continue to beoffered, change accordingly. The offer frequencies may be changed sothat they are equal to each other (33⅓% each). Alternatively, the offerfrequencies may be changed in accordance with their relation to oneanother, in the manner described above.

[0058] Once offers have been discontinued, it may be desirable to makethem available again at some time in the future. For example, after anoffer has been discontinued due to a poor performance rate, conditionssuch as consumer tastes may change. Accordingly, discontinued offers maycontinue to be maintained in the database of offers 24 (FIG. 1), and,after an offer has been discontinued for more than a predeterminedamount of time, it may be advantageous to evaluate its performance rateonce again. The discontinued offer may be granted a randomly-selected orpredetermined offer frequency, allowing the corresponding performancerate to be evaluated.

[0059] In addition, in some situations, after offers are discontinuedonly one offer may continue to be offered. The performance rate of thisoffer is evaluated, and compared with the performance rate of the offerin prior time periods. If the performance rate declines below that ofprior time periods, the offer may be discontinued and replaced. As areplacement, another (discontinued) offer may be granted arandomly-selected or predetermined offer frequency, allowing thecorresponding performance rate to be evaluated.

[0060] In some embodiments it may be desirable that the offer frequencyof certain offers be unchanged, regardless of the performance ratecalculated for those offers. For example, a high-value offer could havea very low offer frequency. The offer could then act as a prize that fewcustomers could receive. Accordingly, the cost of giving such ahigh-value offer in exchange for change due would be incurred rarely,yet could serve as advertising to prompt customers to frequent abusiness.

[0061] Referring to FIG. 11, a table 300, similar to the table 60 ofFIG. 4, illustrates another embodiment of the database of offers 24(FIG. 1). The table 300 includes entries 302, 304, 306 and 308, each ofwhich describes an offer to be provided to customers. Each of theentries 302, 304, 306 and 308 specifies (i) an offer identifier 310 foruniquely indicating the offer; (ii) an offer description 312 fordescribing the offer; (iii) a cost of the offer 314 to the offeror; (iv)an offer frequency 316 and (v) a fixed frequency indication 318. Thefixed frequency indication 318 indicates whether the corresponding offerfrequency may be changed based on the performance rate of the offer, asdescribed above. For example, the entry 308 includes an offer frequencyof 1%. Since this offer has a relatively high value ($50 giftcertificate), it is likely that it will be accepted often, perhapsalways. However, the high cost ($50) of the offer can make itunprofitable to offer more frequently. Accordingly, the frequency ofthat offer is fixed at 1%.

[0062] Although the present invention has been described with respect toa preferred embodiment thereof, those skilled in the art will note thatvarious substitutions may be made to those embodiments described hereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.For example, the evaluation of offers may also account for the time ofday at which the offers were provided.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for controlling offers that are providedat a point-of-sale terminal, comprising: providing a plurality of offersat a point-of-sale terminal; measuring a performance rate of each offer,thereby defining a plurality of performance rates; selecting a subset ofoffers based on at least one of the plurality of performance rates; andproviding the subset of offers at a point-of-sale terminal.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, in which the step of providing a plurality of offersis performed during a first time period; and in which the step ofproviding the subset of offers is performed during a second time periodwhich is subsequent to the first time period.
 3. The method of claim 1,in which the step of providing a plurality of offers comprises:providing an offer of the plurality of offers at each of a plurality ofterminals.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: measuring aperformance rate of the subset; and if the performance rate of thesubset is less than a predetermined threshold, providing the pluralityof offers after the step of providing the subset of offers.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, in which the step of selecting a subset of offerscomprises: selecting offers that have at least a predeterminedperformance rate.
 6. The method of claim 1, in which the step ofselecting a subset of offers comprises: selecting a predetermined numberof highest-performing offers.
 7. An apparatus for controlling offersthat are provided at a point-of-sale terminal, comprising: a storagedevice; and a processor connected to the storage device, the storagedevice storing a program for controlling the processor; and theprocessor operative with the program to: provide a plurality of offersat a point-of-sale terminal; measure a performance rate of each offer,thereby defining a plurality of performance rates; select a subset ofoffers based on at least one of the plurality of performance rates; andprovide the subset of offers at a point-of-sale terminal.
 8. Theapparatus of claim 7, in which the processor is further operative withthe program to: provide a plurality of offers during a first timeperiod; and provide the subset of offers during a second time periodwhich is subsequent to the first time period.
 9. The apparatus of claim7, in which the processor is further operative with the program toprovide an offer of the plurality of offers at each of a plurality ofterminals.
 10. The apparatus of claim 7, in which the processor isfurther operative with the program to: measure a performance rate of thesubset; and if the performance rate of the subset is less than apredetermined threshold, provide the plurality of offers after aprovision of the subset of offers.
 11. The apparatus of claim 7, inwhich the processor is further operative with the program to selectoffers that have at least a predetermined performance rate.
 12. Themethod of claim 7, in which the processor is further operative with theprogram to select a predetermined number of highest-performing offers.13. A method for controlling offers that are provided at a point-of-saleterminal, comprising: providing a first offer at a point-of-saleterminal; measuring a performance rate of the first offer; and if theperformance rate of the first offer is below a predetermined threshold,providing a second offer at a point-of-sale terminal.
 14. An apparatusfor controlling offers that are provided at a point-of-sale terminal,comprising: a storage device; and a processor connected to the storagedevice, the storage device storing a program for controlling theprocessor; and the processor operative with the program to: provide afirst offer at a point-of-sale terminal; measure a performance rate ofthe first offer; and if the performance rate of the first offer is belowa predetermined threshold, provide a second offer at a point-of-saleterminal.
 15. A method for controlling offers that are provided at apoint-of-sale terminal, comprising: providing a first offer at a firstpoint-of-sale terminal; providing a second offer at a secondpoint-of-sale terminal; measuring a performance rate of the first offer;measuring a performance rate of the second offer; and if the performancerate of the second offer is less than the performance rate of the firstoffer, providing the first offer at the second point-of-sale terminal.16. An apparatus for controlling offers that are provided at apoint-of-sale terminal, comprising: a storage device; and a processorconnected to the storage device, the storage device storing a programfor controlling the processor; and the processor operative with theprogram to: provide a first offer at a first point-of-sale terminal;provide a second offer at a second point-of-sale terminal; measure aperformance rate of the first offer; measure a performance rate of thesecond offer; and if the performance rate of the second offer is lessthan the performance rate of the first offer, provide the first offer atthe second point-of-sale terminal.
 17. A method for controlling offersthat are provided at a point-of-sale terminal, comprising: for each of aplurality of purchases, determining an upsell in dependence on thepurchase, determining an upsell price, each upsell price being based ona purchase, and offering to exchange the upsell price for the upsell;measuring a performance rate of each upsell, thereby defining aplurality of performance rates; selecting a subset of upsells based onat least one of the plurality of performance rates; and providing thesubset of upsells at a point-of-sale terminal.
 18. An apparatus forcontrolling offers that are provided at a point-of-sale terminal,comprising: a storage device; and a processor connected to the storagedevice, the storage device storing a program for controlling theprocessor; and the processor operative with the program to, for each ofa plurality of purchases: determine an upsell in dependence on thepurchase, determine an upsell price, each upsell price being based on apurchase, and offer to exchange the upsell price for the upsell; measurea performance rate of each upsell, thereby defining a plurality ofperformance rates; select a subset of upsells based on at least one ofthe plurality of performance rates; and provide the subset of upsells ata point-of-sale terminal.